State Wants To Do Bridge Study Meeting To Outline Plans For Malabar Project

April 12, 1990|By Cory Jo Lancaster Of The Sentinel Staff

MELBOURNE — State officials will meet Monday in Melbourne to outline plans for a one-year study to determine if another bridge to the beaches can be built near Malabar.

The county has wanted to build a Malabar bridge south of Palm Bay for a decade but have faced numerous stumbling blocks, including state and federal regulations that prohibit spending money on projects that would encourage development on barrier islands.

The state Legislature sidestepped those regulations and appropriated $197,000 three years ago for a study to determine how much it will cost, where funding could come from and if it is environmentally feasible to build it within existing state and federal guidelines.

Estimates have put the cost at $60 million to $100 million for a four-lane bridge. It would extend east from U.S. Highway 1 at Malabar Road to State Road A1A near Coconut Point and reach the barrier island near Coconut Point in south Melbourne Beach.

The state Department of Transportation and the consultants for the study will meet with local officials and residents Monday from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the Brevard County Services Complex on Sarno Road in Melbourne to discuss the study.

''This study will determine if it is financially feasible to even build the bridge,'' said DOT spokesman Steve Homan. ''Obviously, the department doesn't have the money to build this bridge.''

The bridge would be costly, state officials say, because under existing federal and state environmental regulations the bridge would have to span the entire Indian River.

Other bridges in Brevard have filled in the river to form causeways with smaller spans over the middle of the river. But those causeways have stopped the natural flow and flushing of the river.

Environmentalists vehemently oppose the bridge because it would bring large-scale development to south Melbourne Beach, which now is covered with predominantly single-family homes.

Included in long-term county plans, the bridge is being billed as a way to increase access to the beaches for south Brevard's growing population and to speed evacuation of the barrier islands in the event of a hurricane, county officials say.

But hurricane evacuations most likely would bottleneck around State Road 520 and 528, the only evacuation route for residents on Merritt Island, Cape Canaveral and most of Cocoa Beach, environmentalists claim.

''Apparently, this is like the Cross-Florida Barge Canal. It's a lousy idea and you just can't kill it with a stick,'' said Howard Wolf with Brevard 21, an environmental group. ''The only real motive for it is to open up future development on the barrier island.''